Just because everybody else seems to be talking about it...
The 30-second spot aired during college football on CBS last Saturday (spot the demographics assumptions), with over a million subsequent views on YouTube. AdWeek credits Saatchi & Saatchi. Produced at Hydraulx (see their other work).
Previously on the TN Ad Front (among other stuff):
Orcs Go Better With Coke,
Gamers are Standing By,
Advertising and Branding in Virtual Worlds.
I wonder what vehicle they'll replace that pick-up truck with when they show that commercial in the UK?
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Oct 09, 2007 at 03:21
Sam Bradley of Texas Tech writes that there was a VW reference on the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. In the opening scene, the four (nerdy) friends are sitting around the living room playing an online game on four laptops when one of them wins a sword and instantly tries to sell it on eBay. One of the others clicks "Buy Now" and then has the sword.
Thanks for the note, Sam.
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Oct 09, 2007 at 04:14
Dead on: If anyone drove a truck in WoW it would be a human paladin...
Posted by: Trevor | Oct 09, 2007 at 10:35
Well, we've been saying it's coming...more proof that 2007 is a tipping point.
Posted by: Tripp | Oct 09, 2007 at 11:21
This is certainly not the first machinima car commercial. Ethan Vogt's Game On was out back in 2005 praising Volvo.
Posted by: Michael Nitsche | Oct 09, 2007 at 12:09
'I am the law giver!'
Brilliant.
Posted by: thoreau | Oct 09, 2007 at 22:27
Theres a very clean copy of the advert available free at
http://creativity-online.com/work/view.php?seed=3ad7e635
I'll give Saatchi & Saatchi 10 out of 10 for pop culture orientated adverts, and certainly it hits all the buttons with anyone who actually knows WoW and about Leeroy.
Certainly it displays the growing brand power of Blizzards franchise (which I'm sure makes them exceedingly happy) and with the Warcraft movie getting the go ahead, I'm sure WoW will in a few years time be on kids school lunchboxes across the world, just like Spiderman, Transformers and Lara Croft is.
"Theres gold in them thar franchises"
Posted by: David Grundy | Oct 10, 2007 at 03:36
The Big Bang Theory clip is on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJoJn5M2Ov8
Posted by: Sam Bradley | Oct 19, 2007 at 20:12
thx! :-)
Posted by: greglas | Oct 19, 2007 at 20:30